Even Noah was a small believer. He believed and didn't believe that the flood would come, and he didn't go it the Ark until the water came.

Noah was a small believer? He didn't believe the flood would really come? How is that possible? He worked for 120 years and embarrassed himself just to build that Ark! The verse said "Noah did all that HASHEM had commanded him." How could he be "a small believer"?

A similar thing happend to Sara when she "laughed within herself" from hearing that she would be having a child. Rashi (from Avraham's laughing) tells us that it was a disappointment because Sara was laughing. Is it possible that Sara didn't believe? She prayed for many years for a child knowing that "HASHEM has held me back from bearing". Now in a brief moment the Torah records her thoughts as someone who didn't believe in the possibility of what she heard. But she should have asked the rhetorical question, "Is anything too difficult for HASHEM?!"

The Chofetz Chaim points out that this faltering of belief is a foreshadowing of a future time when good Jews who have lived with the hope that the Jewish People will again be returned to Eretz Yisrael and the world will be set right, will realize their dreams. So many of us repeat and sing those words of the 13 important Principles of Judaism, "I believe with a perfect belief in the coming of the Moshiach, and although he tarries, even still I wait his arrival each day!" (The Ani Maamin.)

What will a loyal Jew think when he looks at the headlines one morning and finds it announced in clear words what he had hoped for his entire life? A good part of him is in total disbelief, denying it strongly. Although he waited it on some level another part of him is in shock that it actually happened.

How can one both believe and not believe? Simple! It is this weakness that we are warned about by Noah's reaction to the flood and Sara's response to even good news.

Reb Chaim from Sanz gave a question to one of his Chassidim as he passed by: "What would you do if you found a wallet with a nice amount of money in it and there were clear signs for the owner to reclaim it?" The man said in all sincerity, "Why Rebbe, I would return it!" The Rebbe exclaimed, "no" The next gentleman was asked the same question about the wallet and he answered, "Rebbe, I would keep it!" "Thief!" the Rebbe proclaimed. A third man on the street when asked about the wallet answered, "I don't know what I would do, Rebbe, but I hope I would have done the right thing and return it to the rightful owner!" "Ahhh!", sighed the Rebbe from Sanz, "This is a wise man''